


4 times Nigel did evil and 1 he took it very far

by Dylan_Ols02



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-12 22:41:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29641800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dylan_Ols02/pseuds/Dylan_Ols02
Summary: It has never been a mystery that Nigel had always hated the princess's friends, when he makes the decision to intervene on each of them, things end up out of control.
Relationships: Angry | Keira & Red | Catalina & Lance Strongbow & Varian, Angry | Keira & Red | Catalina (Disney), Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel, Rapunzel & Varian (Disney)
Comments: 52
Kudos: 72





	1. Lance

**Author's Note:**

> I always wanted to do a 4+1 fic, but I couldn't think of any idea for it, until now. I've already written the rest of the chapters, so I'll publish a new one every day. I hope you like it, and as always, I apologize for my horrible English.  
> Dylan

Nigel was in the throne room next to the stupid princess and one of her stupid friends. Although Lance Strongbow had been working as a cook in the castle for a long time, he had never been entrusted with such an important work as this time, that week they had received a visit from some of the queens of neighbouring kingdoms, but this visit was going to be one of the most important.

According to the rumors, the queen of Koto was a very demanding person with meals, and yet the princess had selected the most idiotic of her friends as a main cook. Nigel didn't mind that that ex-thief had a job at the tavern outside the city, after all, he had two little girls to keep, but he had been a thief, someone who had been involved in multiple robberies in Corona, someone like that didn't deserve a job as important as the main cook in the castle.

Lance Strongbow wasn't the only one who didn't deserve the job or the life the princess had given him.

The captain of the Royal Guard had also been a thief, demons, he had stolen the princess's crown when she was still missing, and now he had the best possible position inside the royal guard.

And those two stupid girls, what were their names? Kiera and Catalina? They had been the same scum as their foster father, how long had they had owners of the premises of the kingdom fearing for the safety of their money?

And finally there was that boy, at least he had known what it was like to be in prison, but he should be there. That brat didn't deserve to be the royal engineer, he didn't deserve to be friends with the stupid princess, he didn't even deserve to be alive. He had been one of the many citizens who had sent anonymous letters to the king asking for his execution when he was imprisoned.

Things were much better when the princess was kidnapped. The king and the queen were too concerned to find their missing daughter to pay attention to other things, practically Nigel had ruled the kingdom for those 18 years. The most wonderful 18 years of his life. But there was nothing he could do. Or at least he couldn't do anything about that. But he wasn't willing to let those people live such a good life, considering the past they all had.

* * *

"You don't know how happy I am that you chose me as a chief cook for this visit."

"And who else could I have chosen? Lance, I don't exaggerate when I say you're the best cook in the castle, I trust you to prepare the best food for the queen of Koto and her daughters."

Lance didn't take a while to start to work, with the help of two of the cooks, Heather and Ellie, it took them four hours to make a delicious turkey, salad, toast bread, caviar canapes and a big cake. The two women congratulated Lance of his chocolate and vanilla cake recipe.

"Thank you ladies, now we should leave the food here to finish cooling, then the maids will be responsible for serving the guests."

All three of them left the kitchen. There was no other cooks at the castle, because when they had such a big visit, the king and the queen insisted on reducing staff to the minimum possible during that day. Nor were there many workers in the stables, laundry or the medical wing, that's what allowed Nigel to go in quietly to get to the food they had prepared.

"Let's see if after this the king and queen want to keep working a former thief here."

Nigel spoke with his voice very low, although there was no one in the kitchen, he preferred to take precautions. It had taken him a few minutes to decide what he was going to do, but he finally decided to ruin the food in a discreet manner. He grabbed two salt boats from the closet where they kept the spices and started putting salt on the food. Cake, toast and canapes barely needed quantities, although for turkey and salad he preferred to use sugar, as it would be more disgusting.

As soon as he finished his action, Nigel left the royal kitchen with the same stealth as he had come in.

* * *

Although Lance used to scold his daughters when they took some of the food he cooked without asking, when Angry and Catalina showed up next to him and told him there was a problem with food, Lance started to thank that the girls didn't listen to him when he was scolding them.

Lance quickly warned the other chefs at the castle. They couldn't serve that food to the queen of Koto and her daughters in any way, they had to re-prepare the dishes. When Heather arrived in the kitchen, Lance explained the situation quickly.

"Listen, Heather, go find your wife and get back here as quickly as you can, we're gonna need all the help we can."

When the woman ran out the kitchen door, Lance turned around and while pulling out some kitchen ingredients he told his daughters.

"Listen, girls, you must run to anywhere in the castle and get anyone who can come help us, as fast as you can."

Angry and Catalina didn't take long to listen to their father and started walking through the castle halls in search of help.

* * *

Re-make in just an hour a meal that had taken more than four hours to make it was not easy, but thanks to all the help the cooks had had, it was possible. When Lance sent his daughters for help, they didn't take almost a while to come back through the kitchen door accompanied by several people, Faith, one of the maids, Adam, an employee that works in the stables and Maya, the head nurse of the medical wing. Among them, they made the canapes, turkey, toasts, salad and cake look much better than initially.

When they finished the meal, Adam offered to keep an eye on the dishes, to prevent the same thing from happening to them as the previous ones.

* * *

The queen of Koto and her daughters enjoyed the food the cooks had specially prepared for them, and it was right after her return to her kingdom when Lance talked to Eugene and Rapunzel about what had happened in the kitchen.

"Don't worry, man, I'll have my men investigate the matter."


	2. Eugene

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The queen of Neserdnia makes a visit to Corona and Nigel takes the opportunity to remember Captain Fitherbert's past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am very pleased that the first chapter was so welcome, thank you all for your comments. I hope you like this chapter.  
> Dylan

Nigel was still angry because his first attempt to humiliate the princess's friends had not gone well. His plan at that time could not fail, the next important visit was the Queen of Neserdnia, Nigel would take that moment to bring out Flynn Rider's past, so that Corona would lose one of its best business partners and the king would realize that he could not have as captain of the royal guard (and in the future as a son-in-law) a former thief as famous as Eugene Fitherbert.

As usual, Nigel had been next to the castle door, when the royal family and royal guard went out to welcome the queen of Neserdnia and the princesses. After a little tour guided by some of the stay in the castle and a dinner, the queen and her daughters were escorted to their respective rooms where they would spend that night to return to their kingdom the next day after having had an audience with the royal family.

Nigel took advantage of that afternoon when the royal guards weren't watching the door of the queen's room to put a little envelope through a letter under her door.

* * *

Queen Katherine was very proud of the incredible service they offered to her and her two daughters, Greta and Gerda, in the kingdom of Corona. It was something she was going to point out at the hearing that she was going to have tomorrow with King Frederick, Queen Arianna and Princess Rapunzel.

That's when Queen Katherine was going to bed when she realized there was a little envelope under the door of her room. Her first thought was that maybe it belonged to one of the guards she had watched outside, if that was the case, then she'd return it immediately to its owner. But when she turned it around, she saw that the contents of the letter were addressed to her.

Queen Katherine sat on the little desk in the room and opened the envelope.

"Good morning, Your Majesty, Queen Katherine of Neserdnia. I would have told you about this matter in person, but I fear I lose my job for this reason, so I decided to write this letter that I hope will get to you. I wanted to inform you of the acts that the person who today is the captain of the royal guard of our kingdom. He is the legendary thief Flynn Rider, mostly committed robberies in Corona, although his robberies also reached other of the seven kingdoms. Unfortunately Neserdnia was one of them. I think that the famous jewel you call "The heart of Neserdnia" returned to your family a few years ago, but I think you should know that the person who committed that horrible robbery is now calling himself our "Captain." I'm so sorry you had to find out this way, but I think you deserved to know. Thank you very much for your attention, Your Majesty."

Queen Katherine read the letter several times, without believing what she read. She remember very well the theft of "The heart of Neserdnia'" was only a few weeks before she and her husband, King Phoenix, were crowned kings of Neserdnia. It was true that the jewel had been returned to their home without explanation, and they had never known who was responsible for the robbery.

She'd talk about this thing tomorrow with the royal family.

* * *

"We hope your stay in your room has been comfortable, Queen Katherine."

"Of course it has been, thank you very much Queen Arianna. Although if I may, there's a matter I'd like to discuss in this hearing, if you don't mind."

"Of course, Your Majesty, what did you want to talk about?"

Queen Katherine took out of her dress pocket the letter she had received that night and told the royal family members as she had received it and what was its content.

"King Frederick, Queen Arianna, Princess Rapunzel, I wouldn't want to think badly of all this, but I guess you understand what I'm going to look like."

Without leaving time for her parents to respond, Rapunzel spoke.

"Your Majesty, we understand what this may seem to you, but I think you must know that Eugene Fitherbert, my fiancé, is not proud of his previous crimes, he has worked very hard to make up for all his past actions, returned to his pink homes the belongings he had stolen and never did it again. I'm personally a person who likes to give in second chances. He's not the only person, our royal cook and our royal engineer have also experienced very similar situations, but they've all made up for their past actions. They've all earned their second chances."

King Frederick seemed to be about to scold his daughter for not letting him speak first, but at that time, Queen Katherine smiled at the royal family and held the princess's hand among hers.

"Princess Rapunzel, in all my years as queen, I've never met a person with a heart as big as yours. Princess, Your Majesty, you can't imagine how happy I am to know that a kingdom like mine has as a business partner as a beautiful and helpful kingdom as yours, you can assure Neseridnia will continue to be your partner for many years longer."

* * *

It wasn't until hours after the royal meeting when Eugene found out about the mysterious letter Queen Katherine had received. He promised himself that he would investigate this matter thoroughly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just like the previous chapter, I'm so sorry the ending is so hasty, I'm terrible writing endings for stories. I still hope you liked it. Tomorrow you'll have the next chapter.  
> Dylan


	3. Kiera/Angry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When the Schnitz family is going to spend a few days at the castle while they fumigate their house, Nigel decides to accuse one of the girls of something that's too good for her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have hesitated a lot about how I should call Angry in this story. Most people who write fics call her Angry since she prefers to be called that (just like her father no one calls her Arnwaldo Schnitz but Lance Strongbow) so, although I usually call her Kiera when I write, I've preferred to start calling her Angry (except when calls her someone who's not a friend of hers, like Nigel), I hope you like this chapter.  
> Dylan

Living in a tree house was so funny, as long as the house wasn't filled with termites and the family that lived there wasn't forced to leave there for a few days while they were fumigating it.

That's exactly what happened to the members of the Schnitz family. When Eugene and Rapunzel found out, they insisted Lance and the girls to stay in the castle those days instead of staying at the Corona Inn. Although the girls were excited about it at first, they were a little disappointed when they found out that Rapunzel wouldn't be there for that week.

Rapunzel was going on a trip through some neighbouring kingdoms next to her mother, it was a tradition followed by some royal families of the seven kingdoms for years.

"Well, even though I can't be here this week, you can still enjoy these days with Varian and Eugene."

Rapunzel tried to keep the girls in good mood, and thanks to that, she managed to cheer them up. Even though they couldn't have a "girls' day" they could always enjoy their other friends, they could also have sleepover only for girls when Rapunzel came back.

* * *

Many people had come to say goodbye to the queen and the princess, although they were only going to leave for a few days, their lack in the kingdom would be very clear, although that for Nigel was a very positive thing.

Nigel was very clear that his previous plan had failed because of the princess's sudden intervention. If it hadn't been for her, the king would have gotten rid of the stupid guard captain, then the stupid royal cook next to his daughters and then the stupid royal engineer. But that stupid girl had to intervene. That's exactly why Nigel was very happy when he found out he'd have a full week of freedom, without the princess screwing up his plans.

Although Nigel couldn't lie in one aspect, and it was hard for him to decide what to do with the girl.

He had decided that his next victim would be the girl, Kiera Schnitz, but he wasn't very clear what he was going to do with her.

Nigel thought several options. He could just tell some rumors about her, so her family and friends would think bad things about her, but he finally ruled that idea, although it had worked in the past, it wouldn't be easy for a simple rumor to affect both people and that. He could also tear up a room and try to blame the girl for it, although that idea seemed too difficult to perform, gave him another idea, which was the one.

* * *

Nigel disordered his entire room, put all his clothes on the floor and finally put in his jacket pocket the object that needed to make it disappear. It was an old family heirloom that his father had left him in inheritance years ago, a very expensive pocket watch made completely gold. As soon as everything was prepared, he quickly headed to the Royal Guard area, trying to appear nervous.

"Captain, this is inadmissible, someone has managed to sneak into my room and stole an ancient family relic of very valuable."

Eugene listened to the words of the royal counselor and immediately sent some of his men to investigate the scene.

An hour after taking a statement from Nigel and having thoroughly investigated the room where the robbery was committed, they concluded that the robbery had been committed at approximately 4:15 p.m. on that day.

"Nigel, think well if you saw anyone near the area of your room at that time."

Nigel had to make his best effort to contain a smile at that time.

"The only person I saw was that little girl, I think her name is Kiera, one of Mr. Strongbow's daughters, I think I saw her near the area around that hour."

Eugene couldn't believe it, it was true that Angry and his sister had committed some robberies in the past, but he knew that they would now be incapable of stealing someone, just like himself or Lance, but he still had to do his duty as captain of the royal guard, and he called Kiera Schnitz, who showed up there next to her father and sister.

* * *

"I can't believe it Eugene, you really think my daughter might have done it?"

"Lance, I repeat, I don't think Angry was responsible of the robbery, but this is a precaution, we must find out who's responsible for questioning anyone who might be suspicious or could have seen anything."

"But that's absurd, I haven't done anything, I haven't even been in that place all day."

"Well, if you haven't been there, you must tell me where you've been all day, I'm sure you haven't been responsible but maybe you've seen something that can help us in our investigation."

"I haven't seen nothing, I've been in the kitchen all afternoon cooking some things."

"It's true Eugene, I was with her in the kitchen around 5:00 in the afternoon."

"That's fine, Catalina, but if she was the thief at that time, she could have committed the robbery. Angry tell me something, where were you at 4:15 this afternoon?"

"I told you, I was in the kitchen."

"Okay, but is there anyone who can confirm it?"

Angry looked down as she thought, she hadn't paid much attention around her all day, buts he still tried to remember.

"Yes, there's someone, Miss Ellie was in the kitchen with me all afternoon."

"Ellie?"

"Yes, Miss Heather's wife, she was there."

Eugene sighed relief, although he still had to confirm that Angry's story was true, at least he was sure he didn't have to arrest her. The captain let the girls and their father go while looking for one of the soldiers.

"Kyle?"

The royal guard waved to the captain as soon as he saw him.

"Yes, Captain?"

"Your sister Ellie is in the castle right now?"

"Yes sir, she's working"

"Could you ask her to come? I need to ask her some questions about a case."

"Right away, sir"

Kyle went outside the guards area quickly while Eugene was very relieved at the Captain's desk, although they still had to investigate the case, at least he should not involve any of his friends in it.


	4. Catalina

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While one of the Schnitz sisters helps the cleaning service, Nigel decides to repeat the same tactic that failed last time (on this occasion without mistakes)

Nigel was even more angry than before. His plan was perfect, if he had paid more attention to where the stupid girl was at that time, everything would have ended well for him. Although that plan was the one that decided to reuse for his next "intervention".

Nigel had learned from his previous mistake and had decided to spy quietly all day on the other girl Schnitz. What was the red-headed girl's name, Catalina? She and her sister had been busy all day, just like most of the people in the castle.

Queen Arianna and Princess Rapunzel had been out of Corona for almost a week, but a few days ago they had announced that they would return home that Friday, so the king had decided to ask the cleaning service to take care of a thorough cleaning in all the castle's stay. Unfortunately, only a few days ago, many of the servants had taken a few days off, and that made them very short of staff in the castle so much that they had to ask for help cleaning up some people who took care of other services, such as stables or the medical wing. One of the people who had offered to help had been precisely that little girl and her sister.

Nigel couldn't miss that opportunity.

The royal counselor knew that the girl was going to clean one of the areas of the castle. Near the place where the royal vault was.

* * *

Making this accusation was not as simple as the last time, he couldn't just go to the Royal Guard area and tell the captain that a valuable jewel had disappeared from the vault. So he decided to use the same strategy he had used weeks ago with Queen Katherine of Neserdnia. Taking advantage of a moment when the royal guard area was empty, Nigel left the envelope with the letter he had written on top of the captain's desk and ran away from there.

Surprisingly it wasn't Captain Fitherbert who found the envelope, but some of the other guards. Reading the contents of the letter were immediately launched.

* * *

"Catalina Schnitz"

When Catalina saw a large group of royal guards approaching her name, she knew nothing good could happen.

"Miss Schnitz, you have to come with us, thanks to an anonymous informant we discovered that you have been responsible for stealing a major jewel from the royal vault of the castle while you were cleaning up the area."

Catalina started getting nervous.

"But what are you talking about? I didn't do anything."

"You can discuss this matter as soon as we get to the dungeons, now you'd better join us of your own free will."

Catalina stood up on a leap.

"No, I haven't done anything."

The girl turned around and quickly started running through the woods while listening to the guards following her from behind. Although Catalina knew she had a lead, she was not very clear how long she would hold, luckily, in a small forest clearing she found his salvation.

"Varian, please, I need you to help me, I haven't done anything, but they think so. Please help me"

Varian didn't understand what his friend was talking about.

"Catalina speaks slower, what's going on?"

"There's no time for that, please I need your help"

At that point, the sound of the guards running through the forest heard very close.

* * *

The guard who led others was the first one to come up to that clearing in the woods, where he met that boy sitting under the trunk of a tree reading quietly a book.

"Good morning gentlemen, can I help you with something?"

"Good morning, lad, we wanted to know if you've seen Catalina Schnitz around here, we must find her immediately.

"Well, I'm sorry, but I haven't seen her since yesterday."

"Well, no problem, but if you happen to see her, you must immediately inform any royal guard."

"I'll keep that in mind, see you later."

After the conversation, the guards left there and a few minutes later Varian spoke.

"You can leave now Catalina, they're gone."

The girl crawled out under a bush nearby and went to her friend.

"Thank you Varian, really. I think I should tell you what happened."

"Yeah, I think so too, but we better go somewhere before."

"Where can we go? They're looking for me everywhere."

"I know a place where we'll be safe, follow me."

Varian picked up his backpack from the ground and started walking through the woods, while Catalina was following him from behind.

* * *

When had almost darkened, Varian and Catalina had reached the place they had gone. It was an old wooden cabin hidden in the woods, Catalina was surprised that its inside wasn't as careless as the outside.

"Don't worry, you'll be safe here."

"Varian, what is this place?"

"This old cabin was my parents' house, we used to come here when I was little, before my mother died. When the whole black rock thing happened, in Old Corona people started leaving the village for their own safety, I also decided to leave there for a few weeks, that's where I came. I know you'll be safe here, no one ever comes in this area of the woods."

Catalina remembered the matter with the black rocks, Rapunzel had told her about that a long time ago. As she told her, after that snowstorm disappeared from Corona, she and Cassandra had tried to go see Varian in Old Corona, but when they got there they didn't find him at home or anywhere, he was already gone.

"You've been lucky Catalina, I've been cleaning this house a few weeks ago."

Catalina laughed and started inspecting the inside of the cabin. Indeed, it was a very small place, but it was also very cozy, there were only three rooms, a main hall where there was also the kitchen, a room with the beds and the bathroom. Varian used the wood table at the center of the room they were in and started emptying the contents of his backpack. He pulled out a little wool blanket, a bottle of full water and an unstarted ham sandwich.

"I think this will make you have a good time tonight, you can eat the sandwich for dinner and use the water you have in the bottle for tonight, there's a well out, but you better not go out till tomorrow, the mattress in the room is clean, you just have to shake it a little bit before you go to sleep. I'll come back tomorrow as soon as I can and bring you more stuff."

When Varian finished talking, he realized Catalina was crying.

"Thank you Varian... You can't imagine how much I'm grateful to you, thank you."

Varian hugged his friend.

"You don't have to thank me for anything."

"Varian, why are you doing this? Why do you help me even knowing you could go to jail too?"

"Catalina, you're not guilty of anything, if I have to myself I'll make this mistake solve, but if you want to know why I help you, it's because I've been in a prison, and I can assure you that it's the worst thing I've ever experienced in my life, I can't imagine what it would be like to be in prison being innocent, I'm not going to let you experience it."

Both friends hugged again, before he left the cabin, leaving the girl alone.

* * *

Varian didn't sleep very well that night, he was worried about Catalina, but he was also angry with Eugene, really Eugene had let the guards arrest his friend without talking to her before? What did Lance and Angry think of all this? When Varian woke up the next day he went straight to talk to Eugene.

He found him sitting at the captain's desk, in the Royal Guard area.

"Good morning, kid, how's it going?"

Eugene acted like nothing happened, that made Varian harder.

"How's it going? Well, how do you expect me to go?"

"Hey hey kid, calm down, what's going on?"

"Really? What's going on? I'll tell you what's going on, what's the matter is that you sent your men to arrest Catalina without her doing anything and without giving her a chance to explain."

Eugene was very confused.

"Varian, what are you talking about? I didn't send anyone to arrest anyone."

"Don't lie to me, Eugene, I was there when your guards were chasing Catalina."

Eugene got up from the chair and got in front of Varian.

"Look, kid, I can assure you I didn't send my men to arrest Catalina or anyone. Can you explain to me with more detail what happened?"

Varian told him everything.

"An anonymous informant? A robbery in the royal vault?"

"Apparently that's been enough to send your men to arrest Catalina."

"Look, I have a list of all the items that are kept in the vault, I'll look for it and then you'll come with me there to check what objects have been stolen and then investigate this matter further."

"Okay."

* * *

Eugene still couldn't believe the matter.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yes, 100% since someone stole the sundrop flower a few years ago we checked every month the objects in the vault and they've been checked this morning, nothing's missing here."

Varian and Eugene returned to the guard area, where Eugene used his power as captain to find out who was responsible for trying to arrest Catalina. The one responsible was a royal guard who had already given many problems before.

After that royal guard got fired, Varian brought Catalina back to the castle, where Eugene was able to apologize on behalf of all members of the royal guard.

The captain kept the letter that appeared on his desk the day before an anonymous informant claimed that Catalina had stolen something from the royal vault. Eugene promised Lance that he'd investigate the matter, find who had done that to his daughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this chapter has been longer than I expected, although the next chapter is much longer since it's the last one. I hope you liked the story so far. Tomorrow you'll have the last chapter.  
> Dylan


	5. Varian

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Full of rage for his previous failures, Nigel is willing to do anything so that he won't fail this time.

Nigel felt anger consumed him inside.

All his fantastic plans had failed. His last plan had to have been perfect. It was all that stupid kid's fault. Now Nigel was very clear what his next victim was gonna be.

To try to think better, the royal counselor decided to focus the morning on his duties. One of his jobs was to go to the castle medical wing every month and talk to the chief nurse to make sure that the material arrived was the necessary. When he got there, the nurse was keeping part of the surgical material in a small metal box while she was heading to some kind of huge pot with a small valve on one side.

"Miss Maya, I'm here to make sure that the..."

"If what you want to know is if all the material has arrived correctly, the answer is yes."

She did it again, Nigel had never endured the way she spoke to him, although he couldn't do anything, after all, Queen Arianna loved her, he could say they were good friends, and it was also true that she wasn't the only person who spoke to him like that.

"Well, I'm also gonna need you to tell me which material you're gonna need to do the next assignment."

Maya nodded while she opened the cap of the machine that looked like a huge pot, but as soon as she lifted it up a little bit, a lot of hot steam started coming out, and the nurse released it immediately.

"Agh, fuck, I always tell the other nurses not to touch the autoclave. Are you okay?"

Nigel didn't understand what had happened.

"What happened?"

"The autoclave, this machine, is used to sterilize the material with hot steam, but it seems like someone left the lid on without letting it cool. Good thing the valve wasn't activated."

"And what would have happened if it had been?"

Maya laughed.

"We could have burned out both of us"

Nigel tried to pretend that at that time he didn't had come up with an idea.

"I think I've seen one of these machines before, do you have any more?"

While Maya collected the material that had fallen to the ground she answered.

"Here we only have this one, but a few months ago we gave one to the royal engineer, I realized he used to sterilize his material himself, so when we bought this new autoclave, we decided to give him the old, you probably saw it in his lab. Anyway, enough questions for today, follow me, I'll give you the list of the material we need."

* * *

Slim-watching the kid's lab waiting for him to get out of there was not a simple task, especially because of the detail that the boy was not getting out of there. Nigel preferred to wait at lunch time, that was the safest moment, not only that time the boy left the lab, but also the rest of the corridors were empty, most of the staff were eating.

The lab was a mess, especially the desk, had all kinds of open books, there were open scrolls with many written words that Nigel didn't understand. Right in a corner, next to a shelf with a lot of glass glasses was that machine he was looking for, the autoclave. Trying to remember what he'd seen before in the medical wing closed the metal cap and started turning the valve while thinking about what he was doing, the earlier times he hadn't caused physical damage to the princess's friends, but this kid was different, after all the things he'd done. Nigel turned the valve faster until he couldn't move it anymore, waited a few seconds until he made sure the machine was warming up and then left there with a lot of stealth.

* * *

Varian was scolding Lance while he was carrying some bottles with chemicals.

"Lance, I've told you many times not to touch the things in my lab if you don't know what they are, you could blow something up."

"This will be the last time, I promise."

Varian couldn't hold the laugh.

"That's what you always say."

While heading back to his lab, Varian waved to Angry and Catalina, who were in the hallway carrying some books on the way to the library.

Varian entered the lab and closed the door before heading to his desk.

"Man, I gotta clean up a little here."

It wasn't until Varian went to the shelf to get some vials when he realized that the autoclave on the corner of the room had the cap locked.

"The lid must have fallen."

Varian came up and opened it, at that moment he saw a lot of hot steam coming out, felt intense heat, it was like someone crushed his face against a fire, even after he moved away from there, he kept noticing how his face burned.

That's when he noticed how Angry and Catalina had entered the lab, probably alerted by his screams. Varian took the two girls away from one push.

"DON'T TOUCH ME, DON'T TOUCH ME, LEAVE ME ALONE"

Varian came out the lab door quickly, while the girls were following him, in the hallway, he stood on a table nearby. While the girls kept trying to get close to him, his screams attracted more people.

"DON'T TOUCH ME"

Eugene and Rapunzel came immediately. Rapunzel stood in front of the boy, when he looked at half his face was red.

"Varian, what happened?"

Varian dry a tear falling down his cheek that hadn't been affected.

"You all, always touching things you shouldn't. Look what you've done to me."

Eugene grabbed Varian's arms while dragging him to the medical wing.

"Come on, boy, you gotta let that heal you" 

Varian tried to resist.

"NO, LEAVE ME ALONE"

Eugene sat the kid in one of the beds of the infirmary while bending down to his own height.

"Calm down, calm down."

Rapunzel also stood at his height and grabbed his arm to keep him from touching his wound.

"Don't touch yourself, you have to be cured."

Rapunzel turned towards the girls.

"Go and warn someone please"

Angry and Catalina ran into a room in the infirmary, looking for the doctor. Meanwhile, Rapunzel kept grabbing Varian's arm to keep him from touching his face.

"Don't touch yourself. What happened?"

Varian took Eugene and Rapunzel's hands as he spoke.

"The autoclave. Someone left it on"

At that point, the chief nurse showed up

"What happened? I heard screams."

Rapunzel explained to Maya the situation.

"I'll go get Dr. Richard."

* * *

Eugene and Rapunzel left the medical wing lefting Varian with the doctor and went straight to the lab. Rapunzel turned off the machine valve and left it covered until it cooled. Eugene was watching the scene from the door and then the princess told him.

"What's going on, Eugene?"

"Sunshine, this all seems so weird to me."

"Well, I don't think it's that strange, Varian must have forgotten to turn off the machine and..."

"I mean not only that, but everything that has happened."

Rapunzel didn't understand.

"What are you talking about?"

"The attempt to destroy Lance's food, the letter that came to Queen Katherine, Angry's attempted arrest, the false charge of theft of Catalina and now this. None of this happens by chance, much less at the same time."

"And what do you think?"

"I think there's someone trying to hurt us."

Rapunzel watched her boyfriend. She thought it was absurd that someone from the castle really wanted to do that to her friends, but after seeing everything that had happened...

"Maybe you're right."

"I think we should investigate this whole thing further."

* * *

Eugene returned to the Royal Guard area where he went to his desk and showed his girlfriend the two letters he had been keeping. One of them was the letter Queen Katherine had received and the other was the one that had appeared on his desk and had served to blame Catalina for a robbery she had not committed.

Rapunzel had suggested looking at them, perhaps analyzing the content a little bit found some clue. However, when Eugene gave them to her Rapunzel couldn't believe what she saw.

"I know who this letter belongs to."

It was a letter she'd seen many times before.

The author of the letters was someone they both knew very well.

* * *

"Are you sure about this Sunshine?"

"Yeah, we may think we know who wrote the letters but we need more evidence."

Both of them went back to the medical wing, and once they went there to talk to Nurse Maya.

"Hello, Your Highness, Captain, good to see you"

"Same thing, Maya, how's Varian?"

"He'll be fine, his wound is not as serious as it looked, although he's probably got a scar left."

"I haven't seen him so angry in a long time."

Maya couldn't help laughing.

"He's in shock because of what it's been through, give him a little while to calm down."

Eugene was who talk after that.

"Maya, we wanted to ask you about the machine that did that to Varian."

"The autoclave? What do you want to know?"

"Is there anyone besides you two who knows how it's used?"

"Yes, almost everyone we work here."

"I mean someone outside the medical wing."

"I don't think so. Funny, you are the second people today asking me these kinds of questions."

Rapunzel was suddenly surprised.

"Who was the first?"

"He was your father's royal counselor, princess. Nigel"

Eugene and Rapunzel looked at each other. They just confirmed their theory before.

* * *

The king called his royal counselor Nigel to the throne room where, without him knowing, some people were waiting for him.

When he got to the room, two royal guards locked the door behind him. That's when Nigel realized that in the room, besides the king and queen, there were also the captain of the guard and the princess, who didn't have a nice expression on her face.

"Forgive my daring, King Frederick, but I thought you had asked to see me in private."

"Stop playing Nigel, we know very well what you've done."

By the tone of her voice, Nigel knew the princess was very angry.

"Princess, I can really explain it, you see..."

"We don't want to hear your excuses, Nigel, we want to know why you've done all that."

The royal counselor no longer hid.

"I've only done what I should have done a long time ago"

Eugene was also angry.

"Do you realize all the damage you could have caused? You could have caused a conflict with another kingdom, you could have made Corona lose its best trading partner, you could have made two innocent girls imprisoned and you could have killed an innocent boy."

To surprise everyone in the room, Nigel started laughing.

"I could have done all that. But I couldn't do ANYTHING, all because of you, princess, you always screw it all, you realize how well we lived in this stupid kingdom all those years you were kidnapped? NO, YOU'RE NOT CONSCIENT OF IT, YOU SHOULD'VE STAY IN THAT TOWER ALL YOUR LIFE, IT WOULD'VE BEEN A LOT BETTER IF..."

"ENOUGH"

King Frederick's scream made everyone in the room turn their eyes at him immediately.

"Nigel Robert Clayton of Corona, from now on I, King Frederick of Corona, withdraw you the title of royal counselor, you have acted like a criminal in the eyes of this kingdom, and as such will be treated. Captain, cleavage this man to the darkest dungeon we have, after his trial, if he is found guilty, he will be sent immediately to the prison, provided that in the trial it is not decided that he may be sentenced to death for treason."

Eugene listened to the King's words, and with Stan and Pete's help, he took Nigel to the dungeons under the castle.

Rapunzel was the one who immediately headed to find her friends to tell them what had just happened.

* * *

(Three weeks later)

Rapunzel had gathered her friends in her room, with all the material needed for the activity they were about to perform, but before, the princess took a few moments to observe her friends.

Several weeks had passed since all the incidents that had occurred, the trial against Nigel had not yet been held. Everything that man had done, left some kind of mark on his victims.

Lance now was always afraid that his food would be very salty before he had to serve it. Now there were many more people who thought Eugene didn't deserve the royal guard captain position. Sometimes some people would get their hands in their pockets when they saw Angry and Catalina show up, like they were afraid of something being stolen. And although Varian had recovered completely from his wound, part of his face would always have a red color due to the enormous burn.

"What's the activity you had prepared for us Sunshine?"

"Well, I've thought a lot about what happened a couple of weeks ago, and it occurred to me that we could all use some art therapy."

Rapunzel stood aside and let her friends see like inside her room now was full of blank-painted easels, along with little tables with paint and brushes.

The three kids started laughing and quickly approached picking a easel. A couple of hours later, they decided to do a drawing competition  
with the paintings they had painted.

Rapunzel was the winner, painted a beautiful picture of them all together sitting in a forest doing a picnic, Varian was second, with his beautiful picture of an autumn landscape and Catalina in the third, with her colorful picture of a huge meadow with many flowers.

After everything that had happened to them in such a short time, it was very nice for everyone to be able to spend that time in family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's amazing, I've written this whole story in two days. I can't lie, as soon as I started writing, I couldn't stop, I had too many ideas in my head, although I'm not very good at writing finals, at least I don't feel that this ending was hasty. I hope to finish a one shot that I've been preparing for a long time, thank you so much for reading if you've come this far. I send you a lot of kisses and hugs from Spain.  
> Dylan

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it even though the end was so hasty, I'll publish the next chapter tomorrow. Thank you so much for reading.  
> Dylan.


End file.
